Ryan Finnigan
This project explored how individuals with Down syndrome are represented and discussed in a YouTube comment section. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to enable iterative engagement with the 300 publicly available extracted comments. Despite policy advancements promoting inclusion and autonomy for people with disabilities, little research has examined how public attitudes manifest in everyday online discourse. A YouTube comment section provided a valuable lens into capturing unfiltered public opinion, less impacted by social desirability bias.
The main aim of this project was to explore what public attitudes toward intellectual disability may look like beyond formal or socially desirable responses. While governments and organisations continue to implement policies and interventions promoting autonomy, inclusion, and equality for individuals with disabilities, these changes may have limited impact if broader societal beliefs do not develop alongside them.
Online comment sections were chosen as a site for data collection because they can provide more immediate and unfiltered expressions of public opinion, often shaped by reduced social or professional consequences. By analysing these interactions, the project aimed to examine how stigma, humour, support, and perceptions of competence emerge within everyday online discourse.
Ultimately, the project sought to highlight that policy change alone may not be sufficient to create lasting social change, and that further education and behavioural interventions may be necessary to reduce stigma and encourage more accepting attitudes toward individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Four themes and four subthemes were revealed. These themes are listed in order of prevalence within the dataset. Infantilisation and the policing of competence, which highlighted how commenters met the expression of adult autonomy with disbelief, instilling their own infantilising narrative and expressing limits as to what the individual can do at an adult level. Within this theme, two subthemes emerged. Sexual Boundary Policing which functioned to deny adult sexuality for the individual, and Meme-Based infantilisation, which relied on recurring internet tropes to express infantilising views of the individual. Humour as a Mode of Engagement resembled how a single theme can function ambivalently through two smaller subthemes. Some humour encouraged the individual and expressed camaraderie, while other forms of humour operated to ridicule, mock or distance themselves from the message. Supportive and Celebratory responses operated as counter-discourse within the dataset, expressing alignment with the individual's message and pushing back against infantilising or offensive comments. Finally, Lived Experience as an Interpretive Resource showed that personal experience and close proximity to individuals with a disability seemed to foster an understanding and acceptance of adult autonomy. Suggesting that familiarity with disability is a potential indicator of positive engagement. Ultimately, these themes show that despite policy advancement, public attitudes have not caught up.
My name is Ryan Finnigan and I am originally from Wexford. I have been living in Dublin for the past five years, in which I have complete a PLC in Applied Psychology at BFEI, and more recently a level 8 BSc in Applied Psychology at IADT. My interests lie in clinical and neuro psychology, but my thesis is inspired by my employment in the disability sector. I am passionate about assisting those with illnesses and disabilities and hope to bring my psychological insight to aid the development of modern mental health interventions.
